This is the reference thread for my RPG, which I've decided to name "One Brief Shining Moment." In this thread, we'll keep the records of the generations of knights who contribute to the legend of Camelot, their estates, the tales of their lives and their deaths. We'll also use this thread if we want to talk about this game, out of character, and so that other people can comment upon it if they want to.

Therefore, once you've got your character created, please post them in this thread, along with any pertinent information.

Copied from the other thread:

Lucius Vispanius

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/doorknobdeity/Vispanii.png

Character sheet:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17598067/Lucius-Vispanius?secret_password=dum5l958pjesi1z1apk

Lucius comes from a very old Roman patrician family; long ago, for reasons lost to history, his family settled in Britain and have been doing well for itself ever since. Lucius, however, is displeased with the current state of the world. Bad enough that the emperor had abandoned the Vispanius family, as he had all the Romano-British, but Rome itself has fallen to barbarians! Clearly, the wisdom and beauty of the ancients is slowly slipping from the world, to be replaced by the grunts and imitations of their barbarian "successors." Lucius does what he can to preserve classical civilization, but it's a hard, thankless job, even in mostly-Roman London. Things have been getting worse recently. After the recent death of his father, Lucius was set to become the head of his family. However, through a tangled web of feudal obligations, Lucius' father had owed fealty to Earl Roger of Salisbury for a manor there. Swept away by visions of romance and the pastoral poetry of Virgil and other writers, Lucius declined his inheritance and instead asked for his father's Salisbury holdings, opting for the bucolic life of a rural vassal knight. However, once he got there, he discovered that country life is hard and poor, cow pastures are much less romantic in person, and his rustic neighbors were none too impressed by his skillful readings of Ovid and Cicero. Furthermore, since his inheritance as head of the family passed instead to an uncle, his mother and siblings have made it clear that he is not welcome back in London, and so he is stuck in this pig-infested backwater. Never has the light of civilization seemed farther away than in this age of darkness. If only there were some sort of . . . rebirth, or resurgence, or revival of interest in the enlightened ways of ancient culture!

Lucius more than anything wants for civilization?by which he means proper classical civilization?to return. The medieval period, as far as he's concerned, is just something humanity is wasting time with between the classical period and the Renaissance (which he's sure is just around the corner). Step one is getting a leader strong enough to be a proper Roman emperor?and not this silly barbarian Uther, either. Nevertheless, the new band of emperors might as well come from Britain as well as anyone else-- it wouldn't be the first barbarian emperor, and there's really no reason why those other barbarians in Italy or the degenerate cowards who still live in Rome and call themselves Romans would be more likely than someone in Britain, where things haven't gone all to hell quite yet.



(format stolen from Merlin)
Homeland: London
Culture: Roman
Religion: Roman Christian
Father's Name:
Father's Class: Equites of an Aristocratic Family
Son Number: 1
Liege Lord: Sir Roderick, Earl of Salisbury
Current Class: Squire (Vassal Knight)
Current Home: Steeple Langford, Salisbury
Age: 21
Year Born: 465AD

Traits:
13 Chaste+ / Lustful 7
15 Energetic* / Lazy 5
9 Forgiving+ / Vengeful 11
13 Generous* / Selfish 7
14 Honest / Deceitful 6
16 Just* / Arbitrary 4
13 Merciful+* / Cruel 7
9 Modest+* / Proud 11
10 Pious / Worldly 10
10 Prudent / Reckless 10
13 Temperate+ / Indulgent 7
8 Trusting / Suspicious 12
16 Valorous* / Cowardly 4

(+=religious trait, *=chivalrous trait)

Directed Traits:
Suspicious of Saxons +7

Passions:
Loyalty (Sir Roderick, Earl of Salisbury) 12
Love (Family) 15
Hospitality 16
Honour 15
Hate (Saxons) 18

Attributes:
Size 15
Dexterity 12
Strength 13
Constitution 13
Appearance 11
Distinctive features: aquiline nose

Damage (st+sz/6) 5d6
Heal (st+con/10) 3
Move (st+dx/10) 3
Hit points (sz+con) 28
Unconscious (hp/4) 7

Armor:
Chainmail 8
Centurion's Helm 3
Chivalry 3
Shield 6
Total: 14 (20)


Skills:
Awareness 5
Boating 1
Chirurgery
Compose 1
Courtesy 7
Dancing 2
Faerie Lore 1
Falconry 2
First Aid 7
Flirting 2
Folk Lore 1
Gaming 2
Heraldry 3
Hunting 2
Industry
Intrigue Manipulate 10
Orate 10
Play [harp] 10
Read [Latin] 15
Recognize 3
Religion [British Christianity] 4
Romance 2
Singing 2
Stewardship 10
Swimming 2
Tourney 0
Art Appreciation 8
Philosophy 8

Combat skills:
Battle 7
Siege 2
Horsemanship 15

Weapon Skills:
Sword 15
Lance 13
Spear 2
Dagger 5


Starting glory: TBD
Glory from traits: 32
Glory from passions: 18
Glory from holdings: 6
Quality of maintenance: 0
Chivalry: 100
Religion: 0
Total: 156

Horses:
Charger, 2 rouncys, sumpter

Equipment:
chainmail & shield, 2 spears, sword, dagger, fine clothing (?1)
Personal gear, travel gear, war gear
Centurion's Lucky Helm

Money: 0

Family characteristic: Grew Up with Books

Manor: Steeple Langford, L6/year

Army:
Old knights 0
Middle-aged knights 4 (uncles: father's younger brother x2, mother's younger brother, & father's illegitimate brother)
Young knights 5 (younger brother x2, first cousin (paternal), illegitimate older brother, illegitimate younger brother)
Total family knights (incl. Lucius) = 10

13 other lineage men
74 Levy

Note: due to distance and resentment, it is unlikely that many of these men would be willing or able to help in a crisis

Gaius of Burcombe

Gaius was born and raised on his father's estate in Burcombe in Salisbury. His father's family is of Celtic-Briton stock (or at least viewed as such), while his mother's are of Roman-Briton. His maternal family are locally infamous for thinking "too highly" of themselves and are convinced their origins are as patricians in the earliest days of Rome, something scoffed at behind their backs. His parents' marriage was loveless and cold. His father found comfort in the arms of stranger women, as he could not stand his wife who was emotionally cold and had a low opinion of her husband, as she thought he'd married very high up and she as a consequence way down. Her husband's infidelity didn't make matters easily either, so she focused her energies on her son, Gaius, instead of taking a lover of her own. Gaius' mother was a very zealous Roman-Christian and she instilled her faith in her son, often harshly, to make sure he would not become a sinner.
Gaius' childhood was thus filled with Christian and Latin studies with a cold mother and an absent father. His father could not stand being in the same room as his wife for too long and so left his son's upbringing to his wife instead. When Gaius got older, he also got in contact with British Christianity that had different viewpoints than the Roman doctrine he had learned at home. When he mentioned this to his mother, she was outraged and had her son punished for "meeting heretics". Gaius though found British-Christianity more to his heart, but a tragic accident made him believe God punished him for having heretical thoughts and so he became a more devout Roman-Christian...most out of genuine fear. He still on occasion feels himself agreeing with British Christian teachings, but only for a very brief moment, before he remembers the past tragedy and reminds himself that he's a sinner and must repent.
His father died two years ago, in a brothel bed outside Salisbury, smelling of "spirits, sweat & sin" as his mother put it. To her it just reinforced her image that her husband had been a bad man. Gaius though, knows his father did not whore around because he was a infidel at heart. He has heard stories of his father from people around Salisbury (both good & bad) and he knows his father was a ordinary noble. He knows his father sought the companionship of other women, because his mother denied him that in his own house and he knows their marriage was utterly devoid of love. So he has a more neutral opinion of his father. He both loves and hates his mother, yet he did not feel too much when she passed away recently. He had her buried at her own family's estates as he feels she belongs more there. The neighbours though are convinced he did not wish her ghost to haunt his estate.
Gaius finds comfort when he is riding, hunting or training with weapons and he looks forward to becoming a Knight himself. He wants to serve his liege lord to the best of his abilities. What he secretly wishes for though is that when he marries it will be to a woman he can love. But that might be hard. Gaius has not much experience with women and his relationship with his mother has colored his views on the fairer sex.

---
Will be edited.

No, it's the sheet off of the weareallus site: http://weareallus.com/pendragon/images/knightcharactersheet.pdf

I think it's the one with the Book of Knights and Ladies, and I'm playing a Roman (Italian, really http://weareallus.com/pendragon/italians.pdf) character rather than a Cymric one, so that would explain different values. Of course, if I am doing something terribly wrong, please do point it out to me.

Also, you have a very sad knight. If only Sir Gaius could understand the transcendent beauty of Ovid, perhaps your broken heart might heal--alas, curse the barbarian blood that runs through his veins! :(

My bad. That makes much more sense.

I don't have BoK&L... so there's a couple things confusing about doorknobdeity's character sheet (being from BoK&L).

Questions:
Armor Reduction - helms?
Chainmail is 8pts reduction not 10?
Intrigue/Manipulate?

Someone please help me out. I'm looking forward to making my knight

The helm thing has to do with this thing under the errata for KAP5:

Addition: Unhelmeted
Since Grappling might unhelm a knight, this rule has been added.
Total armor protection for a suit is given, such as 10 points for the chain mail hauberk in the early Periods. It is possible that a knight may go into combat without a helmet, or lose it for some reason.
In such cases, assume that the value of the helmet is equal to one quarter of the total value of the armor, rounded in favor of the victim. Thus for 10 point armor, if unhelmeted the armor is (10) x 75%= 7.5 = 8; for Partial Plate, 12 x 75%= 8, and so on.
In addition, my family heirloom is a lucky centurion's helmet that gives an additional +1 armor. That's why I listed the chainmail differently: instead of just 10, it's 8 armor +2 helm +1 special helmet.

Manipulate is explained under here http://weareallus.com/pendragon/italians.pdf, which is a preview of the BoKL.

Manipulate is used to exploit people with subtle verbal skill
and social acumen. It replaces Intrigue, and also the Traits of
Honest and Deceitful, when desired by the user. A character
may have a normally low trait of Deceitful, but be a skilled
manipulator.

Calarion, if you're having second thoughts about allowing me my special snowflake character, I could just do everything straight out of KAP5.

I don't think it's really that much of a problem at the moment, and I like how Sir Gaius and Sir Lucius will almost definitely be playing off one another.

I would appreciate it if the remaining characters were hardy Cymric types and not foreigners, however. :)

alright, everything's cleared up. thanks! I'll be making my character within the next day or two, at least the crunch, maybe not the fluff.

Also, Ive made some handy pages that help keep track of lineage and family knights. I'll put these up with my character, along with a little blurb on how to use them. They're pretty neat and I think they'd be helpful for us.

Couple things:

+ Can I have a custom heirloom like doorknobdeity has? I was thinking my father's sword. Basically the same as the ancient bronze sword under "Additional Belongings" (pg 31, KAP5), just it isn't ancient, its just been passed down the paternal line. If not, its cool; I'll roll on the table instead.

+ I plan on my character having a significant vice with a certain knight and family (how he gets his distinctive scar). Can I give him a 12 or so Hate passion towards that knight, and a +5 Mistrust or Vindictive directed trait towards his family?

+ doorknob, how did you generate your traits? I'm guessing its from BoK&L. I'd like to spice up my characters traits as well. Theyre all kinda bland (lots of 10/10s).

I'll let you customise the details on your sword, as long as it's mechanically unchanged.

Would the scar fit with the fact that you're still a squire? If it does, then that's fine and you can have 12 Hate, +5 Mistrust. If not, then once we're underway I'll try to make sure you encounter said knight and said family and set it up during the game.

I'm happy to let you all redistribute traits by two or three points.

If you want and if Calarion agrees if do you roll (D20) I can look it up for you to tell what you will get from BoK&L.

Also the big change for Cymrics which has been discussed a lot anyway so I don't think I am breaking any copyright is Spear Speciality. Because they are experts at spears the skills spear, lance & great spear become 1 skill spear speciality.


Also if it's any help I have the new chracter sheet setup as a form in PDF, so your player can populated the fields etc.

If you want a copy give me a shout.

Player Name: Merlin (Ben)
Character Name: Sir Geriant

A plump, jovial fellow, who enjoys company, wine and women! His faith holds back his enjoyment of the latter, but his generosity shines through, as he frequently throws feasts, and gives to those he knows are in need. The flip side to his usual generosity and gentle nature is shown in his attitudes towards Saxons. Carrying a grudge brought about through his father's experiences of the 'Night of Long Knives' and his death at the Siege of Carlion, just before the Saxons surrendered, his anger towards them flares violently where he might normally be merciful or tolerant with others.


Homeland: Salisbury
Culture: Cymric
Religion: British Christian
Father's Name: Sir Gherard, son of Gherard
Father's Class: Vassal Knight
Son Number: 1
Liege Lord: Sir Roderick, Earl of Salisbury
Current Class: Squire
Current Home:
Age: 21
Year Born: 465AD

Traits:
13 Chaste+ / Lustful 7
10 Energetic* / Lazy 10
13 Forgiving+ / Vengeful 7
16 Generous* / Selfish 4
10 Honest / Deceitful 10
9 Just* / Arbitary 11
13 Merciful+* / Cruel 7
13 Modest+* / Proud 7
10 Pious / Worldly 10
9 Prudent / Reckless 11
13 Temperate+ / Indulgent 7
10 Trusting / Suspicious 10
15 Valarous* / Cowardly 5

(+=religious trait, *=chivalrous trait)

Directed Traits:

Passions:
Loyalty (Sir Roderick, Earl of Salisbury) 15
Love (Family) 15
Hospitality 16
Honour 15
Hate (Saxons) 20
Attributes:
Size 15
Dexterity 10
Strength 15
Constitution 15
Appearance 9
Distinctive features: plump with cheerful, if rotund, face

Damage (st+sz/6) 5d6
Heal (st+con/10) 3
Move (st+dx/10) 3
Hit points (sz+con) 30
Unconscious (hp/4) 8

Skills:
Awareness 7
Boating 1
Chirurgery
Compose 1
Courtesy 10
Dancing 2
Faerie Lore 1
Falconry 3
First Aid 15
Flirting 12
Folk Lore 2
Gaming 4
Heraldry 3
Hunting 2
Industry
Intrigue 3
Orate 10
Play [harp] 3
Read [latin] 0
Recognize 3
Religion [British Christianity] 2
Romance 3
Singing 2
Stewardship 2
Swimming 2
Tourney 2

Combat skills:
Battle 10
Horsemanship 10

Weapon Skills:
Sword 15
Lance 15
Spear 6
Dagger 5

Coat of Arms: To follow

Starting glory: 1165

Horses:
Charger, 2 rouncys, sumpter

Equipment:
chainmail & shield, 2 spears, sword, dagger, fine clothing (?1)
Personal gear, travel gear, war gear
Decorated saddle (heirloom) worth a ?1

Family characteristic: natural healer (+5 first aid, added above)

Manor: Tisbury

Army:
Old knights 0
Middle-aged knights 2 (uncles: father's younger brother & father's illegitimate brother)
Young knights 3 (younger brother, first cousin (paternal), illegitimate younger brother)
Total family knights (incl. Geriant) = 6

14 other lineage men
34 Levy


Family History

Great-grandfather: Gerin
2,300 glory

Grandfather: Gherard
Starting glory: 256
439AD - Fought in the Battle of Carlion, 90 glory, survived, final glory, 346
440AD - Died through natural causes!

Father: Gherard (named after his father)
Starting glory: 1035
460AD - garrison dury
462AD - garrison duty
463AD - 'Night of Long Knives', Hate Saxons (20)
464AD - marries, gains 100 glory (total 1135)
465AD - Geriant born
466-7AD - Fought in Siege of Carlion (30 glory), died in battle... total glory 1165

Couple things:

+ Can I have a custom heirloom like doorknobdeity has? I was thinking my father's sword. Basically the same as the ancient bronze sword under "Additional Belongings" (pg 31, KAP5), just it isn't ancient, its just been passed down the paternal line. If not, its cool; I'll roll on the table instead.

+ I plan on my character having a significant vice with a certain knight and family (how he gets his distinctive scar). Can I give him a 12 or so Hate passion towards that knight, and a +5 Mistrust or Vindictive directed trait towards his family?

+ doorknob, how did you generate your traits? I'm guessing its from BoK&L. I'd like to spice up my characters traits as well. Theyre all kinda bland (lots of 10/10s).

Passions from the Book of Knights and Ladies, yes, plus some strategic use of the 6 points you're given to distribute among your passions and the 16 you're given.

The helmet was actually my result from the Italian heirloom table-- instead of getting something like a blessed spear or extra cash, I got a helmet. (see http://weareallus.com/pendragon/italians.pdf)

Edited my character to detail his family history etc.

Looks great! Only thing is that I intend to roll the family history for everyone, so that I can do everyone at once and tell you how all your grandfathers and fathers knew each other from participating in particular battles.

Couple MORE things:

+ Merlin, if you want I can copy your knight into a nice pdf character sheet. I think it would help Calarion keep track of them all. You can also tell me what you want your coat of arms to look like and I can add that your sheet too.

+ Doorknob, you can add that coat of arms to your sheet by selecting the "Image tool" in Fox-it. Select an area to place the image over (the blank shield) and then itll prompt for an image to put there. Super easy. Questions with this, ask me. This'll keep all of your knight's info in one place, and plus, just makes your sheet look better.

+ Calarion, I'll tinker a little with my traits to make them more like my guy, but like you said only a few points and nothing above around 12 or 13. Also the scar will be fine. Its not from a battle or anything knightly. I'm working out the details, but its probably going to be from a some fight when my character was a squire or page.

+ I'll have my character up by this weekend.

Right, thanks.

If you need a place to host your character sheet, I like Scribd.com.

Also, does it matter which manor we hold/will inherit? Steeple Langford sounds the most rustically English, and therefore most annoying to my character.

I'd actually rather not have your character sheets in PDF, because I can never figure out how to edit the things. I'm intending to make a Microsoft Word file when everyone's made their characters and bung all the stats in that.

Does it matter which estate you'll inherit? Only geographically. If Cerdic comes raiding from the east, I'll be having a look at whose estates are over that way. I can't think of any other way in which the manors will vary.

I'm wondering if we should use The Book of the Manor for this (which I do have). It looks very cool and could be fun; on the other hand, I have a feeling it might be good for our online game to stay simple, at least to start off with. I'm currently thinking that we might leave it out for the Uther Period, and then see how we feel once we hit Anarchy.

Looks great! Only thing is that I intend to roll the family history for everyone, so that I can do everyone at once and tell you how all your grandfathers and fathers knew each other from participating in particular battles.


Caught out jumping the gun! :-[

I'd actually rather not have your character sheets in PDF, because I can never figure out how to edit the things. I'm intending to make a Microsoft Word file when everyone's made their characters and bung all the stats in that.


If you get Fox-it reader, which is free, you can easily do just about anything. I got it originally to put the errata in my GPC and KAP5. Works Great.

I don't have the Book of the Manor, because that sort of bookkeeping doesn't really appeal to me. If the others want it, I guess I can try and manage without it--after all, they paid for the book, they should get the chance to use it.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17851694/Knight-Character-Sheet?secret_password=1tpie9qij36bqm9ahocd
Fillable, editable pdf character sheets. Easy to change, type stuff in, check boxes, whatever your heart desires. Adobe Reader is stupid and won't let you save changes and upload them, so use Foxit instead: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/
It's a free download, but leaves a big ugly watermark at the top (but since it's already there on the sheet, that shouldn't be much more of a problem)

Doorknobdeity, I was just looking at your character sheet and I've noticed something odd in your Statistics. You don't have a listed Strength score - I'm calculating that it must be a 13, is this right? Your Hit Points should be 28, also.

Fixed, sorry.

How is character creation going, Kevlar? I'm not trying to hurry you along, I just want to know. There's no rush. :)

Just a heads up: I'll be without internet most of this week, so if you could delay the beginning until Sunday or Monday, that would be good.

Merlin's netless as well, so we're definitely not starting just yet.

Holy crap, Steeple Langford is still a real place. According to Google Maps, it's 10 miles to the northwest of the middle of Salisbury.

How is character creation going, Kevlar? I'm not trying to hurry you along, I just want to know. There's no rush. :)


Sorry, I've had some issues getting it online... I may have to either make a scribd account or write it out old-fashioned like Merlin. I've been really busy these last few days, sorry guys.

I'm going to be gone for most of august, so I'll try to get my character up before I leave and then when I come back polish things up and we can play. Sorry about this too, probably shouldve said something about how I can't start playing until the end of august... :-\

That's cool, I just wanted to know where we're at. I'm pretty busy right now too, so a later starting time doesn't bother me.

Merlin's netless as well, so we're definitely not starting just yet.


Checking back in...

I'm back, although I'll be very busy this upcoming week and the next, as I have to move into my dorm on campus. I'll work on getting my character up.

Good stuff! Just to let everyone know, I'll be unable to do anything from two weeks time, for about a week and a half - going overseas to my sister's wedding. But we can aim to have my return from that be the starting point, hopefully.

Hi Gents,

Just wondered how the prep is going for your game.

We have made a start and thus far has been good.

Regards,

BigSteveUK

What with one person and another being busy, we haven't managed to make a start yet. I'm off overseas for the next week and a half, so when I get back, I'll look into starting.

It's not pretty, but I found all of the manors of Salisbury and their relative position to Old Sarum.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=109661140511469710270. 0004717009cacf22a79d0&t=h&z=11

Also, Merlin, is it just me or are your religious traits those of Roman rather than British Christianity? When I stole your format (for which I give belated thanks, by the way), I didn't have to change the traits for my Roman faith at all.

Finally, Calarion, have you given thought to hosting the game at rpgrm, the website bigsteveuk's game (http://www.rpgrm.com/rmsmf/index.php?board=385.0) is on? It looks pretty neat.

Just to say it's working well for us and the admins seem very helpful, I like the dice roller to.

Looking forward to seeing how you gents get on.

I'm sorry guys. I really want to run a Pendragon game - but real life has reared its ugly head and I just don't have the time to devote to this at the moment.

:(

Fair enough.

No problem at all! It is a big commitment, and there are just occasionaly things more important that gaming in life :)

As you probably have guessed, I as well cannot commit to an online game either... School has been keeping me far too busy. I most certainly do want to do this at some point though, so we will all have to keep in touch.